Cyclones alter lineup, take on Old Dominion

Alex Halsted

One week after wrestling unattached at the Harold Nichols Open for his first collegiate matches, true freshman Shayden Terukina will wrestle for the first time as an official member of the ISU wrestling team Sunday.

ISU coach Kevin Jackson told Terukina last Sunday after he won four matches — including the championship match at 133 pounds — to be ready. Now the team will remove Terukina’s redshirt as he enters the lineup as the team’s starting 133-pounder.

“From here on out as long as we’re coaching here, we’re going to wrestle our best guys unless we don’t feel we need to put them out there,” Jackson said. “We need him for the team and we think he’s the best guy, so we’ll wrestle him.”

Terukina said his matches from the tournament would help him be ready when he takes the mat for the No. 18 Cyclones (0-2) as they take on Old Dominion (3-1) on Sunday in Norfolk, Va.

“With these one-on-one dual meets, it’s more pressure,” Terukina said. “I’m happy I got to wrestle Sunday, it just gave me that feeling [of competition] and it released a lot of pressure.”

As the Cyclones look for their first dual victory of the season, the lineup will see other changes too. Jackson said heavyweight Matt Gibson will wrestle for the first time after being held out against Boston and Army for disciplinary reasons.

Meanwhile, the Cyclones also will see changes at two weights in which the Monarchs have ranked wrestlers: 157 and 174 pounds.

Redshirt freshman Mike Moreno is still injured and Jackson said Trent Weatherman is a strong candidate to be bumped up to 157 pounds. At 174 pounds, Jackson said redshirt junior Chris Spangler, who is ranked No. 7, would make his debut if he beats Mikey England in a wrestle-off.

If Spangler wrestles, he would face the Monarchs’ Te Edwards, the No. 10 wrestler at 174 pounds.

“It’ll be good, it’s a good start,” Spangler said. “I wrestled him last year — he wrestled for Arizona State — so I kind of know what he wrestles like.”

Sunday’s duel with the Monarchs will be the team’s final tuneup before the Cyclones enter action against three consecutive ranked opponents in Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Iowa. Jackson said the meet would be a good measuring stick to see where the team stands.

“We just want to put our strongest team out there so we know exactly where we’re at as we come into conference competition,” Jackson said. “Conference competition is important for seeding at the Big 12 [tournament] and for national rankings, so we need to find out where we’re at as far as our team in concerned.”

The Cyclones will take the mat at noon Sunday in Norfolk, Va.